The biggest threat to your brand isn’t a competitor.

😵 Matt Bertulli provides five signals you should kill a product

🧠 Mike Beckham reveals the mindset that changed his life

🤖 Jason Panzer shares the tech that helped scale HexClad

Plus, this week’s top-five headlines in consumer news with executive summaries.

 But First 👀 the Replays? 

If you couldn’t make last week’s live Growth Summit, or — if you could but are itching for (nay, demanding) the replays …

Good news! The recordings + decks are almost ready. I’ll send them out tomorrow to everyone who signed up.

So, yeah, there’s a link at the end.

Jason Panzer President, HexClad

The Tech That Helped Scale HexClad to $500M+

Things were pretty messy at HexClad when I joined.

• Inventory management
• Demand planning
• Distribution

We didn’t have the operational strength to avoid those kinds of problems. Coming on as CFO, one of the first things I did was figure out how to get our hands around it.

I didn’t feel confident in NetSuite, so we decided to onboard Fulfil, and it’s been an absolute game-changer.

• Real-time inventory visibility​
• Accurate forecasting
• Streamlined warehouse ops

Not only did it replace our spreadsheets with one system that tracks everything down to the zip code, but it scaled with us as we grew from two fulfillment centers to five, and expanded into Canada, Mexico, Japan, Australia, and China.

On top of that, Fulfil’s MCP integration with Claude has been monumental. It gives us a 360° view across every 3PL so we can spot slowdowns + fix problems before they hit customers.

We’re over half a billion a year in revenue, and I don’t think we could have gotten there without Fulfil.

If you want to hear directly from my team and me about how Fulfil helped us scale …

Matthew Bertulli CEO, Pela Case & Lomi

When to Kill a Product: 5 Signals

In my 16+ years building consumer brands, I’ve killed more products than I’ve launched.

That’s why my companies are still around.

For example, in 2022, we nixed a product for Pela Case that we’d spent 18 months developing. It was beautiful. The design was solid. The margins were good.

And if we released it, it would have destroyed the business.

How’d I know? A simple framework …

Signal 1: The Math Doesn’t Math

Most founders are optimists.

We believe in the hockey stick; we think scale will fix everything. Sometimes, we are wrong. Here’s my rule-of-thumb:

If a product isn’t profitable at current volume, it needs a clear path to profitability at 3x current volume. If you still can’t see daylight, kill it before it kills you.

That product we nixed in 2022?

The number looked good on paper, but only at scale — which would have required us to shift focus away from our core business for 2+ years. The risk was not worth the reward.

Signal 2: Steals Focus From Winners

This one is sneaky.

You launch a product. It does “okay.” Meanwhile, your core products are crushing it — and they would keep crushing it with more inventory, marketing, and attention.

But your focus goes to the problems.

This is the hidden cost.

Every hour you spend on a struggling product is an hour you’re not spending on a known winner.

This means, your struggling product isn’t just underperforming …

It’s killing the potential of your winners.

Here’s a simple exercise. Add up every hour your team has spent on struggling products in the last 90 days, then calculate the total cost of that manpower.

Now imagine all that time and money went to your best-performing products. How would that impact the business?

We both know the answer.

Signal 3: Customers Aren’t Coming Back

First-time buyers are a measure of your marketing. Repeat buyers are a measure of your product.

If people buy once and never come back, the product either isn’t delivering what it promised. Or it delivered it once, and that was enough.

Both deserve the death sentence.

Here’s what I look for: After 6 months, what percentage of customers have purchased again?

For consumables, I want to see 25%+ coming back. For durables, I want to see them buying accessories or gifting.

One product we killed in 2019 had great first-purchase numbers — but the repeat rate was under 8%. Customers liked the idea. They didn’t love the reality.

Signal 4: Your Best People Don’t Care

Great people have instincts. They can smell a winner. They can smell a loser, too.

So watch where your A-players want to spend their time, what excites them, and what they avoid.

If your best product person keeps finding reasons to work on other things, or your best marketer seems less creative when briefing this product …

Their actions speak louder than their words.

Now, I’ve made it a practice to outright ask:

When your struggling product doesn’t get a single vote, that’s a strong argument in favor of the chopping block.

Signal 5: You’re Explaining, Not Selling

Great products are like great jokes — they don’t need an explanation.

When someone sees a Pela Case, they understand it.

• Compostable phone case
• Reduce plastic waste
• Differentiated feel + styles

But that hasn’t always been the case.

I remember one product we killed required a 3-minute explanation just to get to the value proposition. Every conversation started with, “So what does it do?”

If you spend more time explaining WHY someone should want your product than actually selling it, you’ve got a problem.

But … How Do You Tell Your Team?

Here’s what I do.

First, I own it. No finger-pointing. I made the final call. It’s on me.

Second, I frame it as a win. Because it is. We learned something, saved resources, and protected the business.

Third, I celebrate the work. The engineering, the design, the customer conversations — all of that lives on as real skill and experience in the next thing.

Finally, I move fast. Long goodbyes are the worst.

Kill it. Learn from it. Move on.

 Ask Yourself This Question 

Look at your product line. All of it. Every SKU. Then …

If the answer is no, think about why that is.

• Maybe it’s fine
• Maybe it’s legacy
• Maybe it earns its keep.

Or maybe it’s quietly bleeding you dry.

Every great operator has a graveyard. Products that didn’t make it. Ideas that didn’t survive contact with reality.

Don’t be embarrassed. Be grateful. Every killed product makes room for a winner. Every “no” creates space for a “yes.” Your product graveyard is a monument to good judgment.

Build yours with pride.

PS, Sometimes I’m Wrong …

I’d be lying if I said I always call this right. I’ve killed things I should have kept, kept things I should have killed.

For example, we nixed our eyewear line in 2022 — that was a mistake. It would be a $30M business line for us today.

Remember, the point isn’t to make perfect decisions. It’s to make better decisions in favor of what’s already working.

Mike Beckham CEO, Simple Modern

The Mindset That Changed My Life

Last week, during our Operators Growth Summit, I shared the most important 18 slides of my entire career as a CEO.

They are about Growth Mindset, the belief that you can get better at anything.

Why? Two reasons.

Today, I want to walk you through three questions:

1. What Is a “Growth Mindset”?
2. How Do You Develop It Yourself?
3. How Do You Lead Others to Growth?

1️⃣ What Is a “Growth Mindset”?

The concept comes from researcher Carol Dweck, who identified two ways people view their abilities.

In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work. Brains and talent are just the starting point.

This isn’t a denial that people have different natural abilities; it’s recognition that talent is only part of the picture.

Courtside at Thunder games, I see this distinction clearly. Some of the players appear to be a different species — their physicality is unlike anything I could achieve.

Take Chet Holmgren at 7’1” and 208 pounds. He’s not just tall, he’s proportioned in a way that seems otherworldly. Then there’s Isaiah Joe at 6’3” and 165 pounds. Physically, he’s not that different from me; he’s exponentially more skilled through dedicated practice and development.

The fixed mindset operates differently. It is consumed with outcomes and externals as evidence of immovable constraints.

When someone with a fixed mindset encounters failure or realizes they’re not the best at something, they interpret this as proof of their limitations rather than an opportunity to improve.

This mindset makes us afraid to take risks where we might fall short. Any failure feels like a referendum on our worth.

In one study, children were divided into two groups after completing assignments. One group was told, “You’re so smart!” while the other heard, “You worked really hard on this!” This subtle difference in how we affirm people has profound impacts.

The children praised for effort chose harder tasks and persisted longer when facing challenges. Those praised for intelligence became risk-averse, afraid to be in situations where their “natural” gifts might be questioned.

Another study found that the most successful people across various fields — art, music, sports, physics — weren’t necessarily more talented. They simply produced more. More output meant more successes and more failures.

The willingness to take more swings (to experiment more, to create more) led to breakthrough achievements.

2️⃣ How to Develop a Growth Mindset

 Become a Self-Feeder 

At some point, you have to take personal responsibility for your growth and development. The traditional education model, where someone else creates your syllabus and tells you what to learn, has never been less relevant.

The world is changing too rapidly for this approach to work.

When I spoke at the University of Oklahoma, I argued that the reasons to attend college are fundamentally different from what they were decades ago.

Before, accessing certain subject matters or hearing from top experts required being in specific physical locations. Today, you can learn from the smartest people in the world for free if you choose to do it.

More resources are freely available than at any point in history; it’s your responsibility to access and apply them.

 Elevate Process Over Results 

People with a growth mindset benchmark themselves on process; those with a fixed mindset focus on results. This distinction is crucial because you can control your processes, but you cannot control outcomes.

At Simple Modern, we’ve learned this lesson repeatedly.

We can execute flawless preparation for back-to-school season or holiday events. We couldn’t control that a pandemic would disrupt everything in 2020. Or that a global trade war would utterly topple our plan early last year.

When you focus on process — the quality of effort and decision-making within your control — you maintain agency even when external factors impact results.

 Embrace the Pain of Growth 

One of my favorite quotes in this area: “Wisdom comes from experience. Experience comes from failure.”

Excellence demands doing new things poorly, then persisting through the monotony required for mastery.

Your tolerance for pain and humiliation dictates your ceiling. Theodore Roosevelt captured this beautifully in his “Man in the Arena” speech, noting that the gladiator who comes up short again and again “at least fails while daring greatly.”

Pain and struggle in the pursuit of growth don’t mean you’re doing it wrong. On the contrary, they are almost always a sign you’re on the right path.

 The Power of Feedback 

One of the defining decisions of my adult life was choosing to embrace feedback rather than defend against it.

In high school debate, I developed the ability to out-argue almost anyone, which made it easy to deflect criticism. But I realized that if I truly wanted a growth mindset, then when people offered criticism, there was probably something valuable in it.

I started hearing things I’d previously had my fingers too deep in my ears to hear. People became more willing to share their honest observations. My ability to see myself accurately and therefore to grow increased exponentially.

The most tangible way this has played out over time is that I have become much more open to difficult feedback.

Like anyone else, I don’t naturally enjoy hearing about my shortcomings. The world is full of people who would rather stagnate than take critical feedback to make the changes it requires. But I’ve learned that feedback provides the opportunity to grow. It is a gift — the door to a better and more fulfilling life.

3️⃣ How to Grow Others' Mindset

 Resource, Don’t Rescue 

When leading others, the most important principle is to allow people to struggle … and fail. This applies whether you’re managing employees, raising children, or mentoring peers.

The instinct to rescue people from difficulty is counterproductive because it removes the essential ingredient of failure that creates growth.

Perhaps the most toxic phrase a leader can say is …

This doesn’t help the other person develop; it actively harms them by preventing them from learning through struggle.

 High Expectations + High Support 

The atmosphere of your communication with someone you’re developing needs to be rooted in this: “I have high expectations because I believe you are capable of great things, and I am going to push you to help you reach your full potential.”

Jensen Huang of Nvidia puts it provocatively: “People know that I would rather torture them into greatness than fire them.”

While “torture” isn’t the word I’d choose, the principle is sound — having such high belief in people’s potential that you relentlessly push them to unlock it.

This requires what we call the support-challenge matrix.

You want to operate in the upper right quadrant, where people feel both highly supported and highly challenged. They know you’ve set a high bar, but they also know you’re committed to helping them reach it.

 Celebrate the Fight > the Win 

Be intentional about what you affirm. Rather than praising natural talents (“You’re so good at sales”), celebrate the areas where growth comes through perseverance and hard work.

This shapes how people think about their own development and what they choose to pursue.

The harder part, as a leader, is to avoid praising the win more than the fight — celebrating the outcome more than the effort, and (in the case of failure) the lessons learned.

 Focus: Anything, Not Everything 

Growth mindset means you can get better at anything. What it does not mean is that you can get better at everything. None of us can reach our potential in all areas of life. We can only hope to achieve it in a few carefully chosen areas.

Excellence requires monotony. The willingness to practice the same thing over and over, long after its novelty has worn off. Since this demands an enormous time investment, you must be strategic about where you apply this level of focus.

I love the analogy of being born with a gift card loaded with a finite number of hours. You don’t know the balance, but you know it will eventually hit zero.

Your life is defined by what you choose to spend those hours pursuing — what relationships, causes, and passions you deem worthy of that investment.

The Question That Matters

I regularly ask myself and our team: What is an area of your life where you’re currently going through significant pain and sacrifice in pursuit of growth?

If it’s hard to answer this question, that’s a red flag.

At all points in our development, we should be able to point to something we’re actively working to improve, even when it’s difficult or uncomfortable.

The alternative might feel better in the moment. However, comfort breeds stagnation. Everyone has to choose …

For me, the answer is clear.

Growth mindset isn’t just a business philosophy; it’s a way of life that has opened doors I never would have imagined.

And the best part? It’s available to anyone willing to embrace the discomfort of continuous improvement.

Want the full presentation?

I’ve given Aaron permission to share them.

THE FEED

​Mastering Leadership Is Mostly Saying No & Living With It​

​What Should Performance Creative Look Like in 2026?​

The Trends

Curated by the editor of CPG Wire, the five top stories in commerce and DTC.

1. Epetōme Closes 7-Figure Round: FinSMEs​

London-based gut health startup Epetōme secured 7-figures in funding from Active Partners and Redrice Ventures. The company was co-founded by Jimmy Hill, the founder of Hairburst, and Emily English, a registered nutritionist and content creator with millions of followers.

The gut health space has been on a roll lately. Supergut and Good Bacteria both recently closed rounds, while Metagenics acquired Symprove earlier this year.

2. Coca-Cola Brags at CAGNY: LinkedIn​

Coca-Cola shared a staggering data point during the CAGNY conference in Orlando. The Atlanta-based beverage giant revealed that it currently owns 32 billion-dollar brands.

For context, Unilever owns 14 billion-dollar brands, while Coca-Cola’s chief rival, PepsiCo, owns 23 billion-dollar brands. The closest in terms of billion-dollar brands is Nestle with 31.

3. Just Ice Tea Secures $9M: Instagram​

Beverage brand Just Ice Tea closed a $9M Series B round. Taste Tomorrow Ventures, Polar Strategic Ventures, Robert Trone, and several others participated in the round.

Founded in 2022 by Seth Goldman and celebrity chef Spike Mendelsohn, Just Ice Tea plans to scale to 17,000 doors this year. Goldman previously co-founded Honest Tea and sold the company to Coca-Cola in 2008. Just Ice Tea launched just months after Coca-Cola decided to discontinue Honest Tea.

4. David Wants To Be More: The New Consumer​

David, the protein bar brand that surpassed $100M in sales in its first full year of business, plans to expand its brand portfolio under an umbrella called Medici. The idea is to let David stay in its lane, while using other brands under Medici to tackle new problems and opportunities.

RXBAR co-founder Peter Rahal and Zach Ranen launched David in September 2025. Just one year later, David acquired Epogee, the manufacturer of its key proprietary ingredient, EPG.

5. Hims & Hers Acquires Aussie Competitor: CNBC​

Hims & Hers, the telehealth company whose stock is down nearly 80% over the past year, just acquired Eucalyptus for $1.15B.

The acquisition will enable Hims & Hers to expand into Australia and Japan while deepening its presence in the UK, Canada, and Germany. Eucalyptus was founded in 2019 and is now the largest digital health provider in Australia. The company raised $300M in funding from AirTree Ventures, Blackbird VC, and BOND.

 They’re Coming, I Promise 

If you didn’t attend our Growth Summit last week, I don’t want you to feel guilty. However, do want you to feel that you missed out ... because you did.

Taylor Holiday shared why an 8-figure brand with 8% EBITDA might actually be generating zero distributable cash.

Katelynn Ludwig broke down the WWE and Domes partnerships that are turning DUDE Wipes into a cultural moment.

Justine Tiu explained why The Woobles created a whole new sub-brand — just to move faster + innovate.

And that doesn’t even take us to half-time!

Fortunately, your FOMO has an antidote.

Just click here, enter your info, and I’ll send you all the session recordings + decks tomorrow!

With thanks and anticipation,
Aaron Orendorff 🤓 Executive Editor

PS (Disclaimer): Special thanks to Fulfil for sponsoring today’s newsletter.

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